Guest post: Jenn Bennett + Giveaway

We’re very happy today to have Jenn Bennett on the blog. She is the author of an amazing Urban Fantasy series: Arcadia Bell. Her second novel Summoning the Night will be released on April 24th. I really enjoyed both of them, so if you want to learn more about them, you can read my review about Kindling the Moonhere, or Summoning the Nighthere. I will let you discover this great post and I hope you’ll want to learn more about the series as well.

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I am often asked about the word « magician » in regards to describing my heroine, Cady. She wields an innate magical power and casts spells, so why not use « witch » or « mage, » or some other more genre-accepted word to describe what she is? Some readers even thought they were picking up a book about stage magicians who saw people in half and pull bunnies out of top hats. Even my publisher seemed to have trouble with the word, putting quotes around it in their catalog marketing.

In Cady’s world, the word « witch » is a crass description. Someone who dabbles in folk magic. An amateur. Cady comes from an elite occult background, belonging to an esoteric fraternal order of magicians who use magic and ritual in their everyday lives. They go to temple, learn spells, improve their skills. They feel magic is a birthright and belonging to their organization requires not only talent, but a commitment to an esoteric lifestyle. Rules must be followed. Secrets must be kept. There are competing esoteric orders with different goals, some of them opposing.

Cady jokes in KINDLING THE MOON that her esoteric order is “’Kind of like Hogwarts, only with fewer wands and more nudity. » But I did base this organization, loosely, on real-life esoteric orders. Organizations like Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn have included some famous (and infamous) members over the years, including Aleister Crowley, William Butler Yeats, Algernon Blackwood, and maybe even Bram Stoker. The term « ceremonial magician » was used by many of the members to describe who they were, and Crowley is credited with using « magick » instead of « magic » to differentiate between what he did and stage magic. So for any readers who detest all the purposeful misspellings in fantasy (Wytch and Kaos and Majik, etc), my use of the « k » in magic was rooted in something historical—not just an attempt to throw something random into the text.

Regarding the word « mage, » I know it’s often used in urban fantasy, but in my head, it will always conjure images of boys in basements, rolling 12- and 20-sided dice. « Mage » and « wizard » seem very high-fantasy to me. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It just doesn’t fit Cady.

Of course, because Cady is so snobby about the word « witch », and because the hero in my series, her boyfriend Lon, is a demon who feels that the word « devil » is a slur, those words are exactly what they end up calling each other as pet names. But as the series progresses and we discover what Cady’s parents bred into her during her rather unusual conception, we might find that neither witch, mage, wizard, or magician are labels that accurately describe WHAT she is.

Giveaway

Jenn Bennett gives the possibility to win one of her books: Kindling the Moon or Summoning the night. The giveaway is international if bookdepository ships to you and ends on April 30th.

I love the turn with with words. It give us readers something different to think about, and ponder over. 🙂 I just got Kindling the Moon as a win, and really looking forward to reading it. 🙂 Thank you for the great post!

LOL I loved the bit about Hogwarts — so funny! x) But even though I actually don’t mind alternate spellings that much (although I never let it pass without taking not of it), I love how you explained that your way of spelling « magick » had more to do with something historical than an attempt at originality! 🙂

Awesome guest post, Jenn! You sure know how to sell a book to a witch-lover like me! 😉 <3

Hi everybody! Thanks for all the nice comments! I really appreciate Melliane and Inessa having me on their blog. 🙂 Good luck to everyone in the giveaway!

BookaholicCat: You are in Turkey, right? I’m sorry Book Depository doesn’t ship there. That stinks. 🙁 Do you have an eReader? If you see this message, DM me on twitter and let me know.

Kimberly: Yes, there will at least three more releases, maybe more. Arcadia 2.5 is a special digital novella that’s coming out in December (a story that takes place between the events of books 2 & 3), then Book 3, BINDING THE SHADOWS will release in spring of 2013. Book 4 will release spring of 2014, maybe sooner.

That’s an amazing giveaway, thank you so much for this opportunity 🙂 !! I actually hadn’t heard of this series until now and I’ve checked it out on Goodreads and it sounds awesome !! Great post, thank you so much for the giveaway girls !!

I have had Kindling the Moon on my wishlist for a while now and yippee if you are not having a giveaway opportunity LOL I think the series sounds awesome and so on point for my favorite type of read. I watched the trailer and had to giggle it was done in a very fun style and brought back some silly memories. Thank you for taking the time to share with us today and for this awesome giveaway opportunity 🙂

Awesome Giveaway. I read a review of Summoning the Night yesterday on http://www.rabidreads.ca/ and I instantly added Kindling the Moon to my TBR list. It’s like your psychic! Can’t wait to read these books!